Headteacher's suicide 'linked' to inspection

Irene Hogg’s body was discovered at a secluded spot near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders in March 2008, days after she received critical feedback from the visit.

Ms Hogg, who had been head at Glendinning Primary School in Galashiels for 18 years, was said to have been “disappointed and visibly distressed” by the inspectors’ findings.

A fatal accident inquiry yesterday found that the 54-year-old decided to take her own life by overdosing on paracetamol and drove her car to the remote spot.

Feeling nauseous and dizzy from the overdose, she somehow became immersed in the cold water of a nearby stream, suffered a cardiac arrest and died.

Sheriff James Farrell did not recommend any changes to how inspections are handled and he declined to make a formal finding that included the school inspection as a cause of her death. However he did say that Ms Hogg’s death was “inextricably linked to the outcome of the Glendinning School inspection.”